Repair of a large pipe or pipeline, which may be necessary due to corrosion, thermal and/or mechanical stress which results in a leak, can be made by assembling a split sleeve or ring around the leaking area and then sealing the encircled zone. Conventional split repair fittings, particularly for large diameter pipelines, have often been fabricated from steel plate bent into an arcuate shape configured to fit concentrically over the pipe. Flanges or sidebars, typically cut from heavy steel plate stock, are welded along the axially extending edges of the arcuately bent plates so that the sidebars lie in generally radial directions and complete the arc of a segment comprising one-half of a split fitting. Ultimately, the sidebars of two opposed sleeve or ring segments are bolted together to encircle the pipe being repaired.
A problem of prior art pipe repair fittings is that they are manufactured to fit only one particular pipe diameter.